Egyptian and Greek companies have emerged as low bidders for the main offshore and onshore packages for the Al-Khafji expansion project in the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, write Vahe Petrossian and Nassir Shirkhani.
A consortium of Engineering for the Petroleum&Process Industries (Enppi) and Petrojet, both of Egypt, has effectively been selected for the offshore work, sources said. The package is said to be worth $650 million.
The Egyptians bid a lower price than the other main bidder, Jebel Ali-based J Ray McDermott.
The Egyptian group is holding clarification talks which are expected to last about two weeks, a source said. Onshore, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) submitted the lowest bid for construction of facilities estimated to be worth about $400 million, according to sources.
A 75,000 barrel-per-day gas-oil separation plant and a 125 million-cubic-feet-per-day gas processing plant are to be built.
The projects are part of a programme by Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO) to raise output capacity in the Neutral Zone by 100,000 barrels per day to 700,000 bpd at an overall cost of $2.2 billion.
KJO is a joint venture of Kuwait Gulf Oil Company and Saudi Arabia's Aramco Gulf Operations Company.
Upstream 2006
